Machine for coating pills with gelatine



(No Model.)

G. W. PLAT'T.

MACHINE FOR COATING PILLS WITH GELATINE.

N0. 278,456. Patented May 29,1883.

lllHHllllll-IIIQIJ IJIHIIIIIIIIIII II ogcaowaooo I i I 1 Hill! IIIIIHUHIH UNITED PATENT OFFICE.

chosen rtivr'r, or :GREENFIELD, M'AssAcHnsn'r'rs.

' MACHINE oe COATING-PILLS WITHGELATINE.

"SPECIFICATION"forming part of LettersPatent No.' 278,456, dated May 29,1883.

' a Application filed March 26, 1883. (No model.) i

To all whom it may concern Beitknown that I, GEORGE WILLARD PLATT, acitizen of the UnitedStates, and a :resident of Greenfield,in the countyot'l ranklin and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented a new anduseful Improvement. in

-Machines for Coating Pillswith Gelatine, of

which the following is a full and true specification. a

invention. relates to 'thatclassot' machines where the pills to becoated. are picked up on needle-pointsand then dipped in a solution ofgelatine or of any other desiredprepa ration.

' lt'is well known that alargeproportion of the pills now used inregular practice-are icoatedwith gelatine to prevent the loss of anypartofthe essential qualities of the pills by evaporation or by exposureto the air,-andtorender them less disagreeable intheir administration.This was formerly a slowandtediousoperatiomand though recentlymachineshave been invented to accomplish this they.

' have generally been too complicated and expensive for common use, orthey accomplish the workin an imperfect manner. My machine does the workvery'perfectly, can be managed by a mere novice, and is so cheap as I tobe within the meansof any country drug- .3 t

gist.

The accompanying drawings illustrate my invention and forum part of thisspecification.

vided along its inner sides with small rails, in

which are cut, at equal and suitable distances, gains opposite eachother, in which to set the needle-bars inverted with the pills, ashereinafter described.

B is, a partitioned space in the middle'of'the box to receive the pillsas they are cut off from the needles, having a sliding bottom to allowthe pills to be removed. 0, at the front end of the box, is a shallowtray for holding the pills to becoated. This is made with an inclinetoward the middle of the box, so that pills laid upon it will roll downto the back of the tray, which is a serrated block, D, extendpills.

the tray where the pills are placed, but so as ing the whole width, andbeing equally'di vided by notches extending through the depth oftheblock, which, for convenience in working merely, I usually make tenin number, though in the angle afixed position, whether it be a largeor. asmall one. It will be seen that this is a very material advantageover having the V ipills run merely in grooves to be picked up, as inthat case thepills are not securely held,

and it requires a different setot grooves for every size of pills to bemade, while with my device every pill, large or small, finds its placeand is firmly held, so that the needle strikes every one in the center..In combination with this serrated back is the needle-barE, Fig. '2,having as many needles projecting from it as exactlythe same distanceapart, and all pointing exactly at theapexes of the notches in-theserrated baclr D. While the whole box may be made of wood or metal, I"propose to have this needle-bar of metal, that the needles may betruthfully and securely fastened in it, so that they shall be alwaysfirm and exact in position and pointing at the center of one-grain Thisneedle-bar must be an exact fit in as to move both easily and directlydown, carrying the needles into the center of the cir-- cumference ofevery pill in the notches. If the pills are of larger size than onegrain, a slight pressure back on the needle bar raises the points a verylittle, enough to touch the center of the pills, of whatever size theymay be.

F is a small trough or vat, in which is the solution of gelatine or ofany other desired substance. This vat has square ends to support it, bntis preferably made with sloping sides for convenience in dipping thepills, saving of "7 there are notches, all exactly the same length, 7

material, and ease of cleaning. As the gelatine should be kept warm,this vat or trough can stand in a convenient sand bath or in warm water.The needle-bar, with the pills stuck on the points of the needles,istaken up and the pills gently immersed in the solution in the vat for asecond, and when taken out with the thinnest possible film of gelatinecovering them they aregiven a circular wave over the arm by a turn ofthe wrist, and the gelatine is instantly set. The. needle-bar is thenplaced inverted with the pills up in the gains cut in the rails in therear partition of the machine for the gelatine to harden. After thegelatine has become perfectly hard the next process is to cut the pillsoff the needles. In all methods heretofore adopted for doing this thereis an incompleteness and serious defeet, in this: therehas always beenleft on the side of the pill where the needle enters a little neck orburr of gelatine, hard-and sharp, which had formed on the needle as itwas plunged into the gelatine a little deeper than the pill. My devicefor taking the pills from the needles, and at the same time cutting offthis superfluous hardened gelatine smoothly from the pills, is asfollows: On the side of the partitioned box B is fastened a piece ofthin steel, like a knife-blade, a, extending across the box. Against theends of this, on the sides of the box, are standards of a few inches inheight, each having a slot on the inside running from the top to meetthe edge of the blade at. In the slot runs another knife-blade, I),which shuts tightly down on the blade a. The blade b has on its edge aseries of fine notches, arranged to exactly correspond with the needles,and just deep enough to shut down over them without touching them. Thefixed blade to may also, if desired, be made withfine notchescorresponding to those in .the upper blade and to the needles. Theneedle-bar is taken from the rack where it is standing with the hardenedpills, and the pills on the points of the needles are placed against theknife-edge a, the needles resting on it. The

blade I) is then put in place and brought down,

just touching the pills at their point of contact with the lower blade,a, and the notches, closing down over the needle-points, cut thegelatine from all sides, and, the bar with the needles being quicklywithdrawn, the gelatine adhering to the needles is taken off at thecircumferenceof the pills, leaving them perfectly round and smooth, withno burrs or rough points where the needles entered the pills, and theydrop into the box B, whence they are removed by throwing out the slidingbottom. For convenience I place these blades in the same box comprisingthe part for picking up, and also the rack at the other end for settingup the pills for hardening, though if for any reason preferred they mayeach and all be used separately.

In a machine for coating pills, I claim- 1. The tray described,havingits depression inclined below a horizontal line, and terminatingwith a serrated strip, having vertical walls to form V-shaped abutmentsfor the pills to be coated, as set forth.

2. The notched blade or blades forcutting the pills from the needles,all substantially'as shown and described.

3. The combination of the needle-bar with needles, the inclined traywith serrated back, and the blades for cutting offlthe pills with theboxes, all substantially as described and set forth.

4t. The combination, with the inclined' tray and needle-bar, of theserrated strip D, as and for the purpose set' forth.

GEORGE WILLARD PLATT.

Witnesses:

J AMES S. GRINNELL, FRANCIS M. THOMPSON.

